


Just A Few Minutes Late

by afteriwake



Series: The Best Laid Plans [15]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Anniversary, F/M, Marriage Proposal, Sharing a Bed, Sleeping Together, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 22:04:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6026896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>McCoy had planned on proposing on their anniversary but Molly's surprise when he got home from the conference had him suitably distracted. With five minutes left of their Valentine's Day anniversary, he isn't quite sure he'll be able to pull off his own plans, but in the end, it doesn't matter much anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just A Few Minutes Late

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sideofrawr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sideofrawr/gifts).



> So this was one of the birthday fics for **sideofrawr** that incorporated a quote that spoke to us about the couple I was writing about. The quote for this fic was from _The Deal_ by Elle Kennedy ("I never expected her. Sometimes people sneak up on you and suddenly you don’t know you ever lived without them."). I'm rather glad I didn't get it posted on her actual birthday since technically McCoy proposes on February 15th. ::grins::

To be honest, he had thought last year was the best Valentine’s Day he’d ever had. That had been the day that he’d told Molly he wanted to be with her and she said she loved him and not Sherlock, the day that they’d gone out on their first real date arranged by their friends. He hadn’t really thought much could top that.

He’d been mistaken. This year had been pretty good too, even with the rough start, and they hadn’t done much since he’d gotten back to London except be in the bedroom. They’d briefly left to eat, but even then the entire meal had been spent giving sidelong glances to each other until they’d eaten enough to sate their hunger and then it had been back to the bedroom.

And he had been so caught up in all of that that he’d forgotten what _he’d_ planned to do, and now he literally had five minutes left of his anniversary to do it.

The only problem was, Molly was asleep next to him instead of awake.

There were a few ways he could deal with this. He could have her open the nightstand drawer and find the ring herself and propose then, the way she had in the dream he’d had that had convinced him to buy that ring in the first place. Or he could wake her up and propose now and risk her being grumpy or worse, falling asleep again during the proposal. It was a rough decision. Both had their good sides and bad, but in the end, he wanted it to be today that he proposed, not tomorrow.

He gently shook her arm before placing a kiss on her bare shoulder. “Mmm, Leonard?” she asked sleepily. “What is it?”

“I need to ask you something,” he said.

“Couldn’t it wait till morning?” she asked, not moving from her position.

“Kinda important I ask you on Valentine’s Day,” he said. He waited for a response, but he didn’t get one. “Molly?”

“I was dreaming,” she mumbled. “It was a good dream.”

“Sorry,” he said, immediately feeling bad. “I’ll let you get back to sleep after I ask the question.”

“What is it, then?” she asked.

He was quiet for a moment. “Could you sit up for a sec?”

“But I’m comfy,” she said.

He considered it, and then reached over on the nightstand for the ring. As he did, he glanced at the clock and saw that it was midnight already. He sighed dejectedly. “Never mind, Molly,” he said. “I’m sorry I woke you up. I’ll ask in the morning.” He leaned back over and pressed a kiss in her hair and then lay back down.

There was silence for a moment before she turned to face him. “Leonard McCoy, were you going to propose to me?” she asked, most of the sleepiness out of her voice.

“Yeah,” he said. “But it’s already past midnight. I got…distracted. Not that it wasn’t a pleasant distraction, but it kind of screwed up all the plans I had in my head of the perfect proposal.”

“Well, it’s not as though I’ll say no just because you didn’t ask me on our anniversary,” She said, sitting up. “And if anyone asks, you asked me before midnight. You tried to, at least, but I was stubborn.” A small smile crossed his face as he sat up again, reaching over for the ring in his nightstand. Molly sat up more and held out her hand. Their bedroom was always well lit with moonlight, which never bothered either of them, but it allowed her to get a lovely view of the ring when he opened the box. “Oh, Leonard, it’s absolutely breathtaking.”

“You really like it?” he asked, taking it out of the box.

She nodded. “I do. It’s quite exquisite.”

He held the ring in his fingers before taking her hand in his other one. “I had a dream about this ring. The dream that I had, where I realized I wanted to be with you and if I didn’t tell you I might lose you….this was the ring in the dream. When I found it here in real life I knew it had to be on your finger and I had to be the one to put it there.” He slipped the ring onto her ring finger and was pleased it was a perfect fit. “I wasn’t going to let myself fall in love with anyone else again. I heard a quote somewhere once, and it went ‘I never expected her. Sometimes people sneak up on you and suddenly you don’t know you ever lived without them.’ And that’s you. I don’t know how I ever lived without you before, but I don’t want to live without you again.”

Tears were in her eyes when she looked at him. “Oh, Leonard,” she said, pulling her hand away and wrapping her arms around his neck.

“I love you, Molly, more than I’ve ever loved anyone else. And I want to try it again, the marriage thing. I think, between you and me, we can make it work,” he said, holding her close. “So please, marry me and make me happy as long as we’re lucky enough to be here together.”

“I will,” she said, nodding her head against his. “I will. I will absolutely marry you. Oh, I love you so much, I really do.”

“I’m glad,” he said, holding her tightly. It hadn’t gone at all how he had expected, or _when_ he had expected, but it had done the job. She had said yes, she would marry him, and that made him the luckiest guy in London. Hell, that made him the luckiest guy in the whole universe, as far as he was concerned. In multiple universes, even. And when she pulled away and framed his face before leaning in to kiss him, and the kiss began to get quite heated, he knew that, without a doubt, he had made the right decision in taking another chance at the marriage thing. This time, he was sure he wouldn’t get his heart broken.


End file.
